LinkedIN and other job fishing holes

[burbuja0512]

I got a LinkedIn solely because I completed a statistics.com course and they game me a digital certificate that could be posted on LinkedIn

so I figured "I've got the certificate, I might as well make an account"

for my profile I posted the actual city I live in, but for job description I posted "blah blah blah"

about a 3 months later I get a really nice email from LinkedIn saying my job description was a violation of Terms of Service, and could I please post my real job title

so I changed my location to Provo, Utah (which is about 1/2 across the country from where I really live) and changed my occupation to farmer (I'm actually a computer programmer)

every week or so I get emails from LinkedIn about jobs available in Provo, Utah LOL

and emails reminding me to sign up for a premium account ($30 per month, yeah, right)

The premium account REALLY isn't for everyone.   Headhunters and recruiters use it, some sales people do too.   As a consultant, I use it to see who has looked at my profile, especially if I have recently posted or shared an article or commented on some group activity.    There have been a few times where I've just conveniently dropped an email to people who've looked at my profile who needed my help, but hadn't gone around to asking.     So... worth its weight in gold to me, but I haven't needed it for most of my career.

I would encourage you to make your profile a tiny bit more correct.   Instead of blah blah blah or farmer, you could put the titles and list a one sentence job description, followed by "I'm not active on LinkedIn right now, and have chosen to keep my profile short."     That way, you can still connect with people, or leave a real placeholder should you decide to ever use it.    It'll take about 10 minutes or less to add these sentences under each job you've held, but does allow people to find you.

There are very few people out there that wouldn't benefit from having a site to use as a virtual Rolodex.   After all, how else are you going to call on the people you've worked with over the years?   I certainly know some AMAZING people that I would love to call on to work with again, but if I can't reach them, it's too bad.  Someone else will get the job they would have had!

And you can opt out of LinkedIn's job emails pretty easily.   I find them to be fairly sensible in not spamming me, but if it bugs you, just unsubscribe.